


Overcharged

by Norathefandork



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Flamewar goes zoom zoom at Three in the morning., Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24866029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norathefandork/pseuds/Norathefandork
Summary: All Shadow Striker wants to do is Recharge. All she gets instead is a hyperactive Flamewar at three in the morning.
Relationships: Flamewar/Shadow Striker, Shadow Striker/Flamewar
Kudos: 11





	Overcharged

Shadow Striker is suddenly jostled out of recharge by someone’s gentle knocks on her door. She turns to her side and tries to ignore the noise, hoping it will go away eventually. Annoyingly, the knocking kept going for over fifteen minutes before it finally stopped, filling the room with silence. Suddenly, Shadow Strikers’ personal comms crackle to life. She hears the familiar murmuring of her best friend and secret sparkmate Flamewar. She can only groan with frustration, as she knows full well what is coming. 

Flamewar finally composes herself from behind Shadow Strikers’ door and almost shouts, “Hey, Shadow, are you in recharge?” Shadow Striker could hear Flamewar tapping her feet loudly now in her usual impatient tendencies. After only a few seconds she starts knocking again and repeats herself, “Shadow, you in recharge?”

Shadow Striker groans again and reluctantly activates her comms, “I was, Flamewar.” She quickly looks at her internal clock and lets out a muffled grunt of frustration. “It is three in the morning; what could you possibly need?” Shadow Striker said as she began sitting up and stretching slowly. She’s more than a bit ready to close her comm channel and kick her partner back to her quarters.

Flamewar finally stops tapping her feet and says, “ I can’t recharge. I’ve just been pacing around in my room for the last two hours.” She leans against Shadow Striker’s door with a slight pout across her face. Shadow can hear her clicking the tips of her fingers against the door, leaving long rhythmic sounds to fill the small room.

Shadow Striker lets out a long sigh as she gets off her berth, her metal joints creaking loudly. Her frustration is growing slightly from the valuable alone time being wasted. She knows exactly where indulging Flamewar in conversation will go, but she presses on anyway with questions: “Now how is that my problem? You can handle this yourself, I need to recharge for work, and you know this.”

“I am so bored and lonely though! Can we just like, hang out for a bit?” Flamewar whines, before going silent again. She gets off the door and starts tapping her feet impatiently, waiting for another response. A full two minutes pass, and she hears absolutely nothing from Shadow but silence. “Look Shadow, can I please just come in? I need to burn energy and I am so tired of doing it alone,” she calls into her comm, hoping she’ll finally get a response. Her patience is getting so thin that she’s considering just breaking in the room.

Shadow Striker is still debating on letting Flamewar in. As much as she loves the little idiot, they both need to recharge for their mission patrols. Despite her better judgment, Shadow Striker opens the door to be greeted by an ecstatic Flamewar. “Look you can come in, but,” was all she was able to say before Flamewar bolts past her and starts pacing around her quarters with her optics buzzing an intense bright yellow. Shadow Striker grunts in response and sits back on her berth as she watches her girlfriend pace around the room and talk about nonsense.

“So I was thinking, maybe we could prank Blackjack again tomorrow! Or maybe even pull something on Barricade. I don’t know, what do you think? ...Eh, you’ll probably shut me down as usual. Oh, maybe we could go out for a nighttime patrol? Just you and me out on a walk. Ahhhhhhh! I just need to do something!” While talking, Flamewar fidgets around the room at max energy. She starts to pick up random objects, playing with them.

Shadow Striker looks at Flamewar with tired disappointment. “I know you’ve always been a bit more wound up than most bots, but this is a bit much, even for you. How much energon have you had today?” she asks coldly as her optic zooms in on Flamewar. Trying to study if her partner is ill somehow. “Oh, ya know, not much. About maybe two cups of energon, a six-pack of energon goodies, oh, and someone gave me another twelve-packs of goodies today! Those were so incredibly good, they even had multiple flavors mixed in! Kinda sad I ate them all at once because I could go for another.” she says, excitedly, with a warm, goofy smile across her face.

Shadow Striker quickly facepalms and groans. She looks back up at Flamewar with her usual cold, genuine disappointment. “Gosh, you’re an idiot, Flamey. You knew that we had work tomorrow and you still decided to drink reckless amounts of energon and stay up all night. You should know better by now that this behavior is grossly unprofessional. As your superior, I'm more than disappointed,” she states, in an almost defeated tone. She’s clearly very tired as she struggles to stay online.

Flamewar just looks at the floor while swaying her hands from the side of her body. She’s trying very hard to avoid optic contact with Shadow Striker as her own optics dim down to a more natural glow. “I just did it on impulse, you know how I am. Get an idea in my head and I just gotta bolt for it. Live in the moment and act now.” she says, sounding still characteristically peppy, yet with a vague hint of sadness. Then she suddenly turns around, putting her back towards Shadow Striker, and loudly exclaims, "Look, let's just forget about that, and go do something! Come on, it’ll be fun!" Shadow Striker just crosses her arms, progressively getting angrier and responds, "Flamewar now is not the appropriate time for socializing." Flamewar just yells out her rebuttal in excitement, "What do you mean nows the perfect time! No ones awake besides ol Crankcase! We practically have the whole base to just mingle in!"

As Flamewar turns around again with a bright smile, she finds herself greeting a now annoyed and awake Shadow Striker. Her optics flash in sudden anger as Shadow Striker starts to quietly yell in Flamewar’s face, "Quiet, you nitwit, do you wanna wake up the whole base? Do you want to let our superiors know about us!? Is that what you want?” The room quickly fills with tension as she boldly gets up and stands in front of Flamewar, casting a small shadow over the tinier bot. as she continues to berate her for misconduct, “Can you just think for two minutes? That should not be so hard to ask of you. Do you understand, Flamewar?” Shadow Striker’s now backed Flamewar into the wall of the small room, pointing a firm finger in her face, trying to make a point.

She looks down, and her scowl softens, seeing Flamewar’s optics flicker wildly in distress. Growing concerned, she backs away and examines her partner further. Flamewar is almost shaking against the wall, her optics like warning lights as her face forms a quivering pout. Even though she won’t say anything, Shadow knows she’s hurt her partner, and deep down she feels genuinely awful. She tries to go in for a comforting hug, but backs out and instead goes to sit on her berth in quiet shame.

Flamewar doesn’t move from against the wall, her optics still flickering, but to Shadow’s relief her shaking has calmed down a bit. Two minutes pass as they both stare at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. As usual, Flamewar is the first to break the silence, “You’re mad at me again, aren’t you? Knew I probably should’ve walked around the base for a few hours instead. But you should know how strong my impulses are!” Feeling like she’s made her peace, Flamewar waits again for a response. She watches Shadow’s five optics try and examine her; a feeling she’s grown very accustomed to in the past couple of months. As she waits, she can feel the sadness already turning back into her normal impatience. She goes back to her normal routine of crossing her arms and tapping her right foot, waiting for Shadow to at least say something. 

With her patience finally running thin, Flamewar starts walking back to her room in a huff. She’s clearly upset but refuses to directly say anything about it for the time being. She halts at the door and stares Shadow down with a slight frown on her face. “I hope you can get back to recharge, Shadow. Have a good night,” she says in a faint, lukewarm whisper. Not even a second after walking into the hallway, Shadow Striker finally responds to Flamewar in her normal neutral tone: “Just sit down with me, we need to talk.” She pats the spot next to her and looks at Flamewar expectantly, an icy frown sitting firmly on her face. To her surprise, Flamewar ignores her and simply leans against the door frame with an angry pout on her face. Flamewar seems to be ignoring her completely while she waits for another response. Shadow Striker raises her tone a little and tries to repeat herself, “Flamewar, sit down.”   
“If I sit over there, I want you to talk to me like your girlfriend, not a subordinate. We are off the clock and alone, so I would like for you to just talk to me, not berate me like it’s another day at work. You got that?” Flamewar snaps back bitterly. Shadow Striker takes a moment to process, but she eventually nods in agreement, patting the spot next to her again.

Satisfied, Flamewar struts over to Shadow Striker, completely ignoring the suggested seating of the berth to confidently sit in Shadow’s lap. She gives her girlfriend a smug smile as she looks down at her, though she doesn’t know if it’s annoyance or confusion. “I said to sit next to me,” Shadow says, a bit annoyed at Flamewar’s antics. Flamewar just smiles. “Oh, I know. Very well aware of what you said Shadow, now let’s talk,” she remarks cheekily. Shadow stares at her, before letting out a sigh. "Do you think I like being mad at you, Flamewar? Because I don't, I really don't, and I want you to know that I yell at you so much because you're not doing all that you can. Your lack of effort disappoints me. You can do better... I just wish you would." Shadow thinks about going in for a hug, feeling that she’s said everything she needed to. Instead, she awkwardly places a hand on Flamewar’s thigh and gives a weird-looking half-smile.

Flamewar takes Shadow Striker’s free hand and holds it, smiling as she looks deeply into Shadow’s optics. “I don’t purposefully try to annoy you, well, a majority of the time, anyway. It’s just hard for me to focus, you know.” She pauses, her train of thought, and starts absentmindedly playing with Shadow Striker’s fingers. She doesn’t get back onto her train of thought until she accidentally locks their hands together. “Like, do you ever just lose focus at what you’re doing? Like your processor just gets dominated by one thing, and then that’s all you can think about? Everything suddenly stops mattering except for the thing you’re fixated on. Then it’s three AM and your girlfriend’s mad at you for something you don’t have direct control over.” She goes silent again while looking up at Shadow Striker, trying to pierce through those cold red optics and reach the bot inside.

Shadow Striker can feel Flamewar’s shiny yellow optics swimming through her deep red ones. It makes her spark chamber sink, being looked at like this. A pang of guilt hits her as she thinks about how Flamewar can do better. Find someone who can give her the attention and love she needs. But Flamewar’s stuck with her. She pulls her in a little closer and lets her head rest on her chassis while she considers her response. “No, I don’t have that problem, Flamewar. I can have a laser focus on everything I’m doing at once. I don't allow for anything to distract me. I can't let anything distract me. And I don't understand why you can't focus." Flamewar pouts into Shadow’s chassis, causing her spark to sink further. Flamewar moves her head slightly so her face isn’t buried. “I figured you wouldn’t really get it. Thank you for listening, I guess. I don’t really know what to say. We’re really bad at this couple thing, aren’t we?“ she says, looking up at her. Shadow Striker gives an uneasy nod in return. Flamewar laughs awkwardly. “At least I know you’ll never lie to me,” she says in response to Shadow’s bluntness. 

Shadow Striker looks at her internal clock and realizes an entire hour has passed. She shakes Flamewar a little with her knee. “Are you at all tired yet, Flamewar? It’s four in the morning now, and we still have work tomorrow,” she asks. Flamewar responds almost instantly, “Yeah, I’m a bit more tired. Don’t know if I can recharge by myself, though. Could I recharge with you?” Flamewar tilts her head and pouts a little to sweeten her plea. Shadow Striker looks a bit dumbfounded. “Flamewar, you have your own room for a reason. What if a superior walks in with you nestled into me? How am I going to explain that?” she says, defensive. Flamewar just smirks. “Just kick me to the floor and say I stumbled in drunk and you let me crash here because it was late,” she replies with complete and utter confidence. Shadow Striker ponders this for a moment, before reluctantly agreeing, “Fine, but it’s not my fault if I dent you in the morning.” Flamewar crosses her arms in a victorious pose“Sounds like a risk I’m willing to take, Shadow.”

The two of them slowly prepare for recharge together. Shadow Striker presses her back against the wall to make room for her smaller partner, leaving just enough space for Flamewar to slide in with her and not fall off the berth. Before Flamewar can lay down and cuddle her girlfriend, Shadow Striker stops her."If I somehow roll over on you, activate your flamethrowers, understood?" she says, sternly. Flamewar quietly nods and slides into the berth, her back facing the open air of Shadow Strikers’ room, and her helm pressed up against Shadow’s larger chest. Shadow drapes one arm over Flamewar, calmly wishing her a good recharge before silently shutting her optics down. Flamewar is left to lie alone in the dark, so she studies Shadow Striker’s face. She can almost see a faint smile form on her face. Almost. 

Despite knowing the very rude awakening she's going to have, Flamewar has never felt more at peace with herself. She's never felt more safe and comfortable than this, and it's refreshing. Although Shadow’s oblivious to her actions while in recharge, Flamewar gives Shadow Striker a quick kiss on her chassis. Shadow Striker doesn't react, just as expected. Flamewar smiles at her, admiring her most natural state while she can. But it doesn't take long before time starts catching up to her and she slowly slips into recharge. Shortly after her optics shut down, she can feel Shadow Striker gently pull her in closer protectively. Flamewar wraps her arms around Shadow’s chassis in return and finally enters a blissful recharge.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hoped you enjoyed my first fic. (that I have ever published.) Really wish this didn't take me over a month to do but I ultimately had a good time writing it. Thank you to everyone who proofread it for me I simply could not have done it without you.


End file.
